Boards Pulse Plans

BillyBoy13

I was already asking on the announcement thread but I don't think it went through properly

Emm they have announced that one of boards.ie future plans is to

• Integration of Boards.ie's Moderation and Administrative tools into PULSE for the tracking and aprehension of internet criminals

I dont really understand what this means?

And I'm wondering how this will effect us firearm owners. We all know the general public dont trust us and Im not sure the PTB do either.

Now obviously that says "internet criminals" but once the infrastructure is in place its a slippery slope.

Im sure some numpty somewhere will have the brainfart that if we track firearm owners online and see what they get up to and read their emails we can avoid US style school shootings.

Or maybe Im just reading too much Edward Snowden articles lately :P

Sparks

This is something that's been in the works a long time. lt pretty much started with Tom's first encounter with the stupid side of our sports admin here, and while Tom took over modding this forum for those few weeks, the level of contact with the DoJ and how enthusiastic the DoJ were for that contact to continue convinced him and the boards.ie head office team that there was room to develop our role a bit. As you could guess from his reaction to our NGBs rowing on here, Tom's more a believer in the shooting community than the NGBs and top-down administration and the me-fein stuff that arises from it. And at that point, only the opportunity was needed. That came up during the FCP process when boards.ie was being invited to the conferences by the DoJ to report on them to the community at large.

Basically, it was suggested that since so many shooters were active on boards and it was such a useful mechanism for communications between the PTB and the shooting community as a whole, we might look into taking a few steps towards making it more formally recognised by the PTB. That would require us being able to verify who was whom, but the benefits would outweigh the losses. We already have rules on here about anonymity being a social construct rather than a real thing anyway, so there didn't seem to be too many unsolvable issues arising from the data protections side of things, and of course it would mean we now had an official line back into the PTB again, which we've not had since the NARGC sank the FCP process. That's enough of a payoff for us to pursue the idea.

We hadn't mentioned it yet because this latest noise from the NARGC was slowing the process down (and the scandal around the commissioner and the Minister has stalled everything for the moment), and all the details aren't yet ironed out (firearms law is complex, but data protection makes it look almost sane in comparison), but when Tom announced his MEP candidacy, it got included in the announcement. Not how we'd have chosen to announce it, but that's life I suppose.

So there it is. Boards.ie will basically become the new FCP, the DoJ and the various NGBs will get verified rep accounts and the community can interact directly with them. The first few months may be... rocky. And yes, we're going to have to be a bit more civil during those months to get everything started and there may be a little less of the gossip. But the end product should be a better setup for everyone. We hope you'll stay with us for this and are as excited by the idea as we are.

BillyBoy13

Sparks wrote: »

This is something that's been in the works a long time. lt pretty much started with Tom's first encounter with the stupid side of our sports admin here, and while Tom took over modding this forum for those few weeks, the level of contact with the DoJ and how enthusiastic the DoJ were for that contact to continue convinced him and the boards.ie head office team that there was room to develop our role a bit. As you could guess from his reaction to our NGBs rowing on here, Tom's more a believer in the shooting community than the NGBs and top-down administration and the me-fein stuff that arises from it. And at that point, only the opportunity was needed. That came up during the FCP process when boards.ie was being invited to the conferences by the DoJ to report on them to the community at large.

Basically, it was suggested that since so many shooters were active on boards and it was such a useful mechanism for communications between the PTB and the shooting community as a whole, we might look into taking a few steps towards making it more formally recognised by the PTB. That would require us being able to verify who was whom, but the benefits would outweigh the losses. We already have rules on here about anonymity being a social construct rather than a real thing anyway, so there didn't seem to be too many unsolvable issues arising from the data protections side of things, and of course it would mean we now had an official line back into the PTB again, which we've not had since the NARGC sank the FCP process. That's enough of a payoff for us to pursue the idea.

We hadn't mentioned it yet because this latest noise from the NARGC was slowing the process down (and the scandal around the commissioner and the Minister has stalled everything for the moment), and all the details aren't yet ironed out (firearms law is complex, but data protection makes it look almost sane in comparison), but when Tom announced his MEP candidacy, it got included in the announcement. Not how we'd have chosen to announce it, but that's life I suppose.

So there it is. Boards.ie will basically become the new FCP, the DoJ and the various NGBs will get verified rep accounts and the community can interact directly with them. The first few months may be... rocky. And yes, we're going to have to be a bit more civil during those months to get everything started and there may be a little less of the gossip. But the end product should be a better setup for everyone. We hope you'll stay with us for this and are as excited by the idea as we are.

Sparks,

I understand quite clearly that posting on here is not anonymous. You accept that when you sign up. To be honest, Im sure if someone was really bothered to find out who I am he could narrow me down quite handy from my posting history (owns a site security business in a small town just down the road from Dundalk- the yellow pages could even give you the answer). But that's my problem and I can live with that.

What Im concerned about is that if we give the PTB the go ahead to start "tracking us" here where does it stop?

Today its the boards.ie accounts, tomorrow its our facebooks, the following day its into our gmails and reading private emails..... you know, just incase.

Sparks

BillyBoy13 wrote: »

What Im concerned about is that if we give the PTB the go ahead to start "tracking us" here where does it stop?

We're not talking about anything so invasive Billy, all we're talking about is something akin to the Verified Reps accounts, but for the posters in general in this forum rather than just the retailers and clubs and the like, and the backend authentication would be done against the PULSE database rather than the boards.ie database. Mods wouldn't have access to your personal data anymore than we do today. It's just a different authentication mechanism, that's all. I will grant you, it will mean that you probably don't want to youtube yourself shooting illegally in the wicklow hills and post that up here, but you didn't want to do that before. And the benefits really would outweigh the very minor inconveniences we're talking about here.

We would need to work out some way to allow normal users to post on the forum before they get their licence and PULSE number, that's true - otherwise we'd lose the ability for random new people to ask questions and drift into the sport that way. But that's just a technical issue that the devs can handle. We would also need to consider whether it would be worth having the account reflect if you owned a particular class of firearm - so that, if you were giving your opinion on a brand of shotgun, for example, people could see you owned shotguns and therefore knew what you were talking about, as opposed to someone who'd never seen one outside of google and wikipedia and who was just bull****ting us. Being able to put a stop to that sort of nonsense would surely be worth the minimal amount of effort we're talking about here.

BillyBoy13

Sparks wrote: »

We would also need to consider whether it would be worth having the account reflect if you owned a particular class of firearm - so that, if you were giving your opinion on a brand of shotgun, for example, people could see you owned shotguns and therefore knew what you were talking about, as opposed to someone who'd never seen one outside of google and wikipedia and who was just bull****ting us. Being able to put a stop to that sort of nonsense would surely be worth the minimal amount of effort we're talking about here.

Sparks,

Forget every other point I was going to make for one second.

So you and boards.ie want to set it up so that anyone can just come along and see what guns I own..??

Do you want me to give you photographs of the safe aswell..... tell you what way I bolted it to the wall and what room its in???

I cant believe Im hearing this....

I know some people love to show of their guns online nd post up photographs of the whole kit..... but some of us are more cautious and dont like the world knowing what we have.

LB6

It's 1st April - i'm assuming this is a big joke!

Sparks

BillyBoy13 wrote: »

So you and boards.ie want to set it up so that anyone can just come along and see what guns I own..??

No, we're talking about category of firearms here, not what actual firearms you own, that'd be daft. Since you'd already be saying you owned firearms at all, this wouldn't be any more information really and it would help with the bull we see so often. And again, it's just an authentication mechanism, you wouldn't be posting your real name and address here, that'd be silly.

BillyBoy13

Sparks wrote: »

No, we're talking about category of firearms here, not what actual firearms you own, that'd be daft. Since you'd already be saying you owned firearms at all, this wouldn't be any more information really and it would help with the bull we see so often. And again, it's just an authentication mechanism, you wouldn't be posting your real name and address here, that'd be silly.

What do you mean authentication a password is it?

Look tell me it in simple terms.

Pulse is some kind of personal file the gardai have on firearm holders and criminals.

You want to link our accounts here to the pulse. (which honestly Im not hugley bothered about in itself)

But what happens in 2 years time they say 'sure we have boards linked into pulse and we're reading all that..... sure why don't we just add in a few more bits and pieces'.

Then what? Now they are reading through all the emails between me and my wife. And then as usual, someone in government will lose a laptop with all my private emails saved on it- or it will turn out that someone else is spying on them spying on us.

I cant believe this. Someones bugging the Garda ombudsman, then it turns out the gardai are recording all the phone conversations.... and now this crap...

And then worse still Im the only person that seems to think theres a problem with it...??

BillyBoy13

LB6 wrote: »

It's 1st April - i'm assuming this is a big joke!

No its not. Sure did ya not see the other page the guys running for election. This whole pulse thing is all his idea. Hes getting a lot of support too.

BillyBoy13

Sparks wrote: »

No, we're talking about category of firearms here, not what actual firearms you own, that'd be daft.

That doesnt even make sense. Id say you could nearly bet your life that 100% firearm owners on here have at least 1 non-restricted licence. And only probably the odd person has a restricted licence.

So whats the point in just seeing someone has a non-restricted licence? Doesnt stop people talking crap. Oh yeh look that Grizzly chap has a non-restricted licence...... he'd know all about that bleiker rifle I want to get. Better ask his advice.

rsole1

LB6 wrote: »

It's 1st April - i'm assuming this is a big joke!

Yes you're right they April fooled us alright.

Sparks

Okay, this is getting too cruel now, and it's nearly the end of the day anyway.

Sorry Billyboy, it is a windup, it's April 1, and the odds that we'd ever link boards to PULSE are about as low as the odds that the AGS would ever link PULSE to boards.

(Seriously, Devore has a bit of a thing for internet privacy )

If it makes you feel any better, it wasn't planned, we didn't know Tom was doing that MEP gag and Cass was suckered in by the PULSE line for a while as a result. (Me, I'm just annoyed that it's a gag at all - if I could choose between Tom and Ming Flanagan as an MEP when the EU is deciding on things like net neutrality, internet privacy, software patents and copyright, I'd vote for Tom twice). This was all rather done on the hop.

rsole1

BillyBoy13 wrote: »

That doesnt even make sense. Id say you could nearly bet your life that 100% firearm owners on here have at least 1 non-restricted licence. And only probably the odd person has a restricted licence.

So whats the point in just seeing someone has a non-restricted licence? Doesnt stop people talking crap. Oh yeh look that Grizzly chap has a non-restricted licence...... he'd know all about that bleiker rifle I want to get. Better ask his advice.

I think it's time to knock this Boards.ie firmly on the head.

BillyBoy13

Sparks wrote: »

Okay, this is getting too cruel now, and it's nearly the end of the day anyway.

Sorry Billyboy, it is a windup, it's April 1, and the odds that we'd ever link boards to PULSE are about as low as the odds that the AGS would ever link PULSE to boards.

(Seriously, Devore has a bit of a thing for internet privacy )

If it makes you feel any better, it wasn't planned, we didn't know Tom was doing that MEP gag and Cass was suckered in by the PULSE line for a while as a result. (Me, I'm just annoyed that it's a gag at all - if I could choose between Tom and Ming Flanagan as an MEP when the EU is deciding on things like net neutrality, internet privacy, software patents and copyright, I'd vote for Tom twice). This was all rather done on the hop.

So this whole thing was a joke...??? Even that Tom chap running for EU..??? You really went all out and out with this

All, Im gonna say is, Sparks, next April I'll be getting ya back

Sparks

Funny thing is, we didn't go out and out at all - I hate april fools day and the other mods were busy. This whole thing only kicked off 'cos you bit the Tom-for-Europe gag so hard Billy, and that was too good a thing to pass up on

cruisedub123

BillyBoy13 wrote: »

I was already asking on the announcement thread but I don't think it went through properly

Emm they have announced that one of boards.ie future plans is to



I dont really understand what this means?

And I'm wondering how this will effect us firearm owners. We all know the general public dont trust us and Im not sure the PTB do either.

Now obviously that says "internet criminals" but once the infrastructure is in place its a slippery slope.

Im sure some numpty somewhere will have the brainfart that if we track firearm owners online and see what they get up to and read their emails we can avoid US style school shootings.

Or maybe Im just reading too much Edward Snowden articles lately :P

April fool"s day

Cass

Sparks wrote: »

........... and Cass was suckered in by the PULSE line for a while as a result. .........

Yup. Well and truly suckered. Never thought for a minute about what day it was. When i did i just logged off. cannot trust anything being said today.

BillyBoy13 wrote: »

All, Im gonna say is, Sparks, next April I'll be getting ya back

You're dead right .

Nekarsulm

Good one! had me going for a few minutes. Truth is, some one is already reading your emails to your wife, boyfriend (or both!) at the moment. There is no such thing as privacy on line.

Sparks

Yup, it's the internet rule: